The Other Side Of The Other Side

The Anchoress is facing the loss of a close relative, from this world to the next. Her most recent remarks can be found here. Earlier observations and reminiscences of a beloved brother can be read here.

There are really no words that can assuage the feelings of fear, despair and the dread of an impending loss- and that is a good thing. The cycle of life and death are meant to make us more whole and to strengthen us. They are tests and challenges we must endure and from which, we may come out bruised and battered. We also come out stronger. Through it all, many of us ask God to guide us, or to hold us in the palm of His hand, as we endure the hard journey that we will all take.

Our relationship with God, or even our inner selves, if one is not a believer, will very much define how we will endure the trials of life and how we will emerge.

Iran And Anti-Semitism, Shrinkwrapped

In the wake of Iran's announced plan that Christians, Jews and all other non Muslims would have wear color coded identfying badges (so that Muslims might not unwittingly become unclean'), we thought a bit of insight into 'What makes an anti semite run,' was in order. 

Shrinkwrapped's Pity The Poor Anti Semite, is a clear, thoughtful and cogent examination of anti-semitism. 

The beauty of anti-Semitism is that the Jews have a long tradition of being small in number yet relatively visible in the societies in which they lived.  Thus, they serve as the perfect objects on which to project ambivalently held traits.  For example, the leading anti-Semites of the world are now found in the Arab world.  Their projection of all evil traits onto the Jews is a thing of beauty in its incoherent hatred.

Here is the crucial point for those who imagine that a tiny group of people, barely 60 years out of an almost successful genocide, left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, comprising approximately .05% of the world's population, who came to the desert in Palestine and built a modern technological nation, would have the time and interest to simultaneously devote themselves to oppressing the Muslim world, with almost 100 times their population and oceans of oil:

The anti-Semite necessarily defines himself as monumentally inferior to the Jew. 

Read SW's post.  He has put into words, deliberately and clearly, the moral bankruptcy of bigotry and racism. When you're done, read it again.

*UPDATED* Of Yellow Stars

Passing a Nurenburg type law, Iran will make it mandatory for Jews and Christians to wear badges of identifiable colors, so as to indentify non Muslims.

The idea is that Muslims would easily identify who they were not to come into contact, by shaking hands, for example- and thus become 'unclean.'

One TV pundit noted that perhaps it was time for Iranians that were issued visas to travel abroad, be forced to wear identifying badges.

As for those who believe that 'talking' and 'negotiating' with Iran will be productive, we can only remind them that appeasement didn't work with Hitler- and he wasn't on the way to producing a nuclear weapon and promising to share nuclear technology with other rogue states.

*UPDATE* We would assume the non Muslim diplomatic corps would be forced to wear the identifying colored badges. After all, true religious edicts would make no distinctions with regard to the Kafir's status.

Religious minorities would have their own colour schemes. They will also have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faiths. Jews would be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes while Christians will be assigned the colour red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the colour of their zonnar. It is not clear what will happen to followers of other religions, including Hindus, Bahais and Buddhists, not to mention plain agnostics and atheists, whose very existence is denied by the Islamic Republic.

Naturally, we would expect the Iranian diplomatic corps in the west to wear identifying colored badges. The wearing of those badges would identify Iranians- and kafirs, always sensitive to the cultural needs of others, would not extend their hands in greeting and thus preclude the Iranian diplomat from having to touch an 'unclean' non Muslim.
We were informed of the color scheme article by a reader, who also informed us that the word 'zonnar' is loosely translated as 'whores.'

Starbuck Marxists, Values And Politics

Over the last few weeks, we have been following the events in South America and the antics of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. Fausta has published a wellspring of information on the matter.

Of course, there is one question that begs an answer. Given the history of so many failed Marxist style regimes in South America, why on earth would so many citizens support yet another group of tinpot dictators? The gains and advances made by South American countries have always come under democratic regimes. It seems hard to imagine that there would be so many that would support yet another strongman posing as a populist.

Why does that happen?

We think we have the answer, or at least an important component of the answer.